This weekend’s mass shootings come as the country mourns the victims of its deadliest mass shooting this year. Days earlier, 18 people were killed in a shooting in Lewiston, Maine.
Guns, of course. But let’s don’t say to make them illegal or americans get mads telling you isn’t about weapons and everything can be a weapon. Well then try do a mass shootings with an hammer, a knife or a rock.
I didn’t know the onion did this.
They’ve been publishing almost the same article for something like a decade.
everything can be a weapon.
Those people are so annoying.
I usually ask them why we don’t replace the military and police’s guns with spoons. Save a lot of money. You can also kill people with a spoon.
I think there is a kind of obsession with violence and needs to feeling powerful. Really weapons should not exist at all, even the nuclears one. Wars make no sense as killing or wishing the dead of someone. In Europe even police don’t go around easly with guns, it is common sense.
Unfortunately, it largely boils down to “you first” type arguments. Countries won’t remove their nuclear weapons until everyone else does, and the same is true for military weapons and whatnot. As long as weapons exist, they’ll be needed as a deterrent to others who have weapons.
But I absolutely agree that we need to change our relationship with guns. Here are some actionable steps:
- split police forces into weaponized and non-weaponized officers; have the officers w/o weapons clearly marked on their uniforms; would mostly apply to traffic cops initially, who would also be dispatched for any low-risk call; they can still perform arrests, just aren’t authorized to use lethal force
- require regular inspections of secure storage of firearms; have the police, local national guard, or any authorized gun seller perform the checks; this wouldn’t require registration of all firearms with the state, just regular inspection, with stiff penalties if you’re caught not having an inspection done (and smaller penalties if you fail and don’t fix the issue in time)
Both are compatible with the Constitution AFAIK, and I think the first could reduce how many officers get shot in traffic-related interactions because they no longer present a lethal threat.
Yep, guns are a scary jump in easy ways to kill people.
I hardly believe in usa sometimes, thinking about common people who goes around with guns. Why? Why any should have an easy way to kill someone else? It does not make any sense.
Because when guns were a little harder to come by, and to kill people with, a bunch of rich white guys managed to start a new country. Quickly, they added the Bill of Rights to our constitution with the 2nd amendment that says i have the basic right to own a gun.
But its actual meaning has been debated ever for decades.
Think of it another way, why should I be restricted in my options to defend myself? I can understand if I have committed some crime or am otherwise a danger to society, but if someone comes at me with a knife or a gun, do I just have to accept that? The police aren’t going to protect me when seconds count.
I personally don’t own guns because I think the risk of my kids finding them and hurting themselves or others is too high, and the risk of someone attacking me or my family is really low (crime rates in my area are really low).
There are lots of cases where individuals have successfully defended themselves using firearms, so I don’t think they should be outlawed. Instead, I propose a few changes:
- split police force to have an unarmed group that mostly handles traffic violations and low-risk calls
- require proof of secure storage for all weapons, which can be done by police, national guard, or registered gun sellers; this is not gun registration, just verification of secure storage (fines for failure to maintain proof would be high, fines for failing a check would be much lower and could be waived if you pass a follow-up)
- require registration of any weapons capable of mass murder, with increasing restrictions directly related to the public danger the weapon presents (i.e. more secure storage)
- third-party sales must be performed in the presence of a police officer, national guard official, or registered gun seller (to ensure buyer is allowed to own said firearm), and the fee for this would be fixed (say, $20 per transaction)
I believe the first two have no Constitutional issues, and the last two should be compatible with the 2nd amendment, but it could depend on implementation.
I’ll just leave this here for anyone who’s like, it’s those high crime cities, etc etc and denies that guns are the problem. Other western countries are horrified by the US’s stance towards guns and don’t have to deal with this, because, and stay with me here, they have less guns, and guns kill people really quickly and easily compared to other weapons. There ya go.
Damn, those bears in Alaska must have yoked bear arms.
But seriously, looks like Hawai’i and Massachusetts need to tutor the rest of the class.
Also this data is starting to turn green and grow mold. I’d be interested in what this landscape looks like now that it’s a decade later.
You can go back further than 20 years to gather thoughts and prayers. I think you need at least 100 years worth for something to start happening.
Between Friday and Sunday, 12 mass shootings took place,
that’s gotta be a fucking record, right?
I don’t think i want to know.
After some quick googling I think fourth of July weekend 2021 might be the record holder.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shootings-gun-violence-180-people-killed-4th-july-weekend/
Mass shootings got the “covid bump” – people making up for lost time shooting each other bc they had to quarantine etc
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In Texarkana, Texas, three people were killed and three others were injured in a shooting at a party in the back room of a business a little after 9 p.m. on Saturday, police said.
At some point during this fight, at least two men there pulled out rifles and started shooting," read a statement from the Texarkana Texas Police Department posted to social media on Sunday morning.
Officers said they heard gunshots and saw a large crowd dispersing from the area, according to a statement issued by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Sunday morning.
The shooting was the result of an isolated dispute between two people that escalated into violence, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a Sunday afternoon news conference.
Police said at least 15 people were injured — two of them critically — in a shooting in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side early Sunday morning.
Chicago Police officers responding to the scene saw a man open fire at the site of a gathering just after 1 a.m., according to a news release from the department.
The original article contains 722 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Not a good summary. Each paragraph is a different location. Not the bot’s fault, just the wrong application
This isn’t new, it’s gang and drug violence. Stop calling it mass shootings…
Americans so numb to mass shootings they think four people being injured or killed by guns in the same incident shouldn’t count as a “mass shooting.” Sane people reading this are horrified though.
America’s horrible relationship to guns isn’t new though I’ll give you that.
It’s about being honest in reporting. People involved in selling heroin on the corner getting shot is fundamentally different than people in a church/school/bar/mall getting shot.
It would be like calling every car accident involving more than one pedestrian or more than 2 cars, a mass ramming incident. There’s not an epidemic of people using cars to kill a bunch of people, but there’s enough drunk drivers and people texting to make it look that way if you try.
What’s with the obsession with “mass shootings?”
People don’t like getting shot I think. And this doesn’t happen in other developed countries to nearly this extent so it’s clearly preventable. I agree though, we should also be concerned with the overwhelming amount of gun violence that doesn’t involve four or more people too.
So people don’t count if they’re in a gang or do drugs? Mass shooting is the correct term if the shooter is “actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Implicit in this definition is the shooter’s use of a firearm.”
